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The Zoological Gardens at Melbourne Zoo – established in 1862 – are among Victoria’s most treasured gardens. They are home to thousands of animals and approximately 70,000 plant specimens.

Take your time to amble through our grounds and enjoy the natural beauty and carefully cultivated landscape.

Main Drive

Designed in the 1860s, the main drive at Melbourne Zoo has become an iconic landscape – and one of Melbourne’s most recognisable heritage gardens.

Its long boulevard (170 metres) is broken by a series of paths and circular gardens, which lead to our habitat-based animal exhibits. Many heritage features can be found along the main drive, including federation-era buildings, a Peter Pan statue, and a restored animal exhibit.

As with many gardens of this era, the zoo boasts bold tropical foliage such as Abyssinian Banana (Enseteventricosum), Bird of Paradise Tree (Strelitzia nicolai) and Chinese Windmill Palm (Trachycarpusfortunei).

Browsing food for our animals

Fresh browsing food enriches our animals’ diets and environments. Some of the animals who benefit from this include elephants, giraffes, Red Pandas and a variety of primate and ape species.

Each week, over 1000 branches are harvested from a variety of plantations, drawing on many plant species. Fresh browse is collected from several sources, including the zoo’s managed plantations and domestic gardens.

Many of the plants we collect for browsing food are environmental weeds. Feeding them to our animals contributes to the biodiversity of our environment.

Japanese garden

The Japanese garden was built in 1990, to mark the tenth anniversary of the sister-state relationship between Victoria and the Aichi Prefecture in Japan.

This garden (and an Australian garden in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi) were created to symbolise the strong friendship between the two states and to reflect the natural beauty of their respective landscapes.

A joint project of the Victorian Government and the formerly named Zoological Board of Victoria, the Japanese Garden was opened in November 1991. It is still one of Australia’s finest examples of a traditional Japanese stroll garden.